A few things that caught my attention, made me think, or brought me joy this week.
Some weeks are great. Others are so-so. And some weeks it just feels like the train came off the tracks, and who knows where it went from there. I feel like this past week was the latter type, not my favorite, but when we have weeks like that, all we can do is recover and return.
Thing worth talking about
I would not consider myself a patient person.
And this is not news to me. I feel like patience is something that I have struggled with my entire life. In a perfect world, the older I got, the better I would get at it; I don't think that's necessarily the case. At the same time, it's definitely something that is on my mind frequently and something that I'm trying to cultivate.
There are many aspects of my life now that require patience. Places where I would like to see an immediate result, but I don't, so I must be patient. I think the world could all stand being a little more patient in many circumstances, but we can't control that.
All we can control is ourselves.
Another thing worth talking about
I think one of the issues lately is that I have noticed I have not been as on-task as I normally would be. I could make up reasons. I could invent some excuse, but it's been a choice, and it's been a choice that I have to take ownership of.
My evenings have not been as filled with being productive as I would like. I should be okay with that. We don't need to be productive all the time. At the same time, I'm not okay with that, and that means that it's time for me to recenter. My workouts sort of fell apart this week. Again, there are reasons. None of them are good. They just are.
And so, taking my own advice, instead of trying to come up with some new plan, this week is simply about returning. It is about picking back up where I left off, not trying to invent some new plan, take some massive new step, just get back to what I'd already been doing.
And the good news is that feels far less heavy.
Something else
I thought for certain I would be writing about the new album from The Ocean, Solaris.
But I'm not, and it has nothing to do with the quality of that album. I think that it is another excellent release from one of metal's most interesting bands. At the same time, it is 70 minutes long. It is complex. It is fascinating, and it definitely is going to require some time to really get a feel for it.
So instead, I'm writing about the most recent album from German goth metal band Lacrimas Profundere, Lay Me Down O Silent Fear. I’ve been aware of Lacrimas Profundere for some time now, but haven’t really listened to them.
This week, though, Lay Me Down really grabbed me. It is moody, dark, dripping in pathos and atmosphere, and is really, really good. The first full listen through was all it took for me to come back again and again.
Is Solaris the better album? Probably. But is Lay Me Down much easier to get into? Yes. And that worked in its favor this weekend.
I always love a good musical surprise.
Looking Ahead
Anyone who's gone to the homepage lately may have noticed yet another revamp. I'm still working on exactly what I want the page to look like, but I think that what I've landed on is a better representation. That's encouraging.
I've also worked on a flow for the posts that hopefully will make things interesting, but at the same time give me a better framework to work within. I've been working on this experiment for a little over a year now, and in some ways it has been what I'd hoped, and in others, I still feel like I'm just barely figuring it all out.
I suppose that is why it is an experiment.
